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Last night (thursday) I spent a few hours enjoying the real ale at the new home of the Cardiff Beer festival.

With it’s move to the CIA I was a bit wossname, but the elbow room made for a good atomosphere on the first night… a good mix of beardies, ladys and blokes with clipboards marking off their favourites, of course I just take pictures of the clips instead, well worth a visit Today or Saturday (before the Springsteen gig at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium)

They will be having live music Tonight and saturday, and the food (which i did not try last night) was

I did not take that many pictures, but hopefully will be going back on Saturday for a refresher.

The Dare brewery was one I had not tried before, but I as always enjoy the Rhymney Dark

The beer that I would go back for more and more is Otley’s Dark Eight 0 (i think it was called that but did not take picture), a mix of their strong 08 and their dark, it was just brewed for the festival but I hope the Otley brothers brew it for their pubs and maybe bottling.

It was a shame I had to leave as I did not even get to the ciders.

Many thanks to the hospitality of Arfur Daley, read his blog for updates on the festival almost live!

The festival has a facebook group as well.

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This is my 801st post on this here blog…

The beer first - as you know I like my real ale, but yesteday I went along to a new pub in the centre of Cardiff, called zero degrees, its pub that brew’s it’s own beer or as they say

ZERODEGREES is a pioneering drinking and dining concept at the forefront of the emerging trend towards fresh, handcrafted beers brewed by microbreweries.

anyway it’s was not real ale in the sense of what I normally drink, but “hand crafted beers on tap” I only tried a few of them, the Pale Ale 4.6% was the only one that could be seen to be like a normal bitter.

.

The Black Lager 4.8% was like a beer I had in prague (and you can get it in weatherspoons - Kozel), very nice and malty.

The star of the show was a Speciality fruit beer, a mango wheat beer

I know this seen as more a ladies drink ;), but on a warm day it was perfect.

The good thing about zero degrees is that they provide take outs, in 5l party packs or 50L packs!!

Well worth a visit but not this weekend as Munster are playing in the heineken cup and it will be packed as it’s just next to the Millenium Staduim

The photos now! they deserve a post of their own, so thats now 802 posts on this blog!

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o’hanlons’ port stout, originally uploaded by unclewilco.

So good and it’s only Tueasday and I have had two pints of it..

Smooth and tasty everything a porter should be if I gave stars it would get ********* out of 10.

wonderful

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It’s Be Nice to Nettles Week - 14 - 25 May 2008

Highlighting that the stinging nettle plays a very important role for both rural and urban wildlife supporting over 40 species of insect including some of our most colourful butterflies.

The stinging nettle is one of the most important native plants for wildlife in the UK. An ideal home for insects.

More info here, maybe you could create your own nettle patch, but I know some allotment sheddies are well ahead of the game.

I have done my part already with a few bottle of Hugh Fernley Whittingstall wossname River Cottage stinger Ale made from organic nettles, a nice rounded beer I found…

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Adnams has launched what it claims is the UK’s first carbon-neutral beer.

Adnams says the bitter, East Green, has less than 1p worth of carbon emissions per bottle, which it has pledged to offset.

The beer is produced at a new “eco-friendly” brewery in Southwold, Suffolk, which recycles steam created during the brewing process and uses it to heat 90% of the following brew, a spokeswoman said.

But they don’t mention the strength or anything… if you see if around sheddies take a photo of the clip and add it to the Beer of the Week Group on Flickr.

Anyway my beer of the Week is Bass!

It’s an old favorite and was a lovely pint Ralph says “most of the time ” which I will agree with most of the time you will be lucky to get a good pint of it.

I had it at the Fox & Hounds in St. Brides Major, South Wales, a great little pub I have not been to for years.

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There is no beer of the week, there are lots of beers

The Wetherspoons Real Ale festival is still on but alas i am off to foreign wossnames, so will miss the last week

I have added the past few weeks worth of Beer from the festival that I have drunk, to the Flickr group Beer of the Week, if you have any great beers then please feel free to add them.

These two were my favorites so far.

this post was sheduled to appear at this time and date.

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Well as it’s St paddy’s had to have a pint of Guinness, but shocking how much it costs in a Local Orish Pub…£2.85 a pint (you would have thought Brains would have made enough money on the weekend!) when you could go across the road to a wetherspoons and get it for £1.99 a pint today, as it’s Monday club as well…

Anyway I know St paddy’s was supposed to be Saturday this year, but I had to stay off the beer then, even though Wales won the Grand Slam..

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A lovely brew from the people that brought you Shropshire Lad.

It’s a blonde beer and a nice session strength of 4.1%

She’s blonde, well flavoured and very tasty!

Combining fine English pale malts together with Fuggles and Cascade hops to create a tasty “bitter stuff!”

very nice I may have another pint today.

conversationally I had a bottle of beer last night, which was great

Lovely Wye valley beer that my mother bought me for Xmas

Alc 4.4% Vol. 500ml. A classic brown ale with a sweet nutty flavour balanced with a resinous hop character.

The Best 4 x 4 has been brewed to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Land Rover. Since 1948, Land Rover has represented all that’s best about British ingenuity and engineering excellence. To celebrate the company’s diamond jubilee, Wye Valley Brewery in conjunction with Land Rover Owner International magazine has produced this commemorative bottled beer and there will be a donation from every case of bottles sold to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

This beer is not bottle conditioned.

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Blimey two posts in a week about Beer, either the Beer is too good or I’m drinking too much.

This was a wonderful porter (a theme I think) was well received 4/5 …

Old Growler
Porter 5.0 % abv

Our famous porter has won at the CAMRA winter festival twice, the only brewery to do so, first in 1998 and again in 2003, also winning the highest accolade Supreme Champion in 2003. Also Supreme Champion at the Chicago International Beer Festival in 2004, in the porter category. A complex, satisfying porter, smooth and distinctive. Roast malt and fruit feature in the palate. The finish is powerfully hoppy with a hint of liquorice.
Sometimes available as Growler Extra, at 5.5 % abv.

But I would also like to make this post an introduction the Beer of the Week Flickr group, please feel free to add your Beer clips or Pints of beer to the group and it may feature here.

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I can’t believe this has not made my Beer of the Week so far, as i tend to get it if its on, normally thats at the POW as the other beers are sometimes not up to grade but the Rhymney is always good, but today it was at the gatekeeper, which was great accompaniment to my Chili & Chips!

The 5% Ale is according to the brewery

“Our strongest ale to date. A heady flavour from a combination of six malts, carefully and skilfully mixed by hand, which we believe provides an ale of exceptional character. Full bodied yet rounded, serious but eminently quaffable”.

Rhymney are a great Welsh brewery that produce wonderful consistent beers unlike a certain bigger brewery in Cardiff.

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I have been eying this up for a few days, but only took the plunge when a “collude” was having it with his group of reprobates.

Herold Black Chalice 4.8% abv

This dark, almost black, stout-like beer is characterised by a dense creamy head and rich flavours reminiscent of plain chocolate.

I would easily drink this agian and agian its brewed by Pivovar Herold the Czech brewer.

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A pub named after a breed of pig was today named the best in Britain.

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) praised the Old Spot Inn, calling it a well-run community pub.

100-year-old free house in Dursley on the Cotswold Way is named after the Gloucestershire Old Spot pig.

It beat other contenders in the Camra competition when assessed for its beer, atmosphere, decor, customer service and value for money.

Why not read my Beer of the Week posts.

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